Facebook Customer Chat Plugin Benefits in 2021
Because no one has time to search high and low for contact information.
Because no one has time to search high and low for contact information.
On most websites you’ll find a “Contact Us” section. It’s usually hidden from plain sight, tucked between links to privacy policies and terms of use that very few people read. And the contact information on this page typically amounts to nothing more than a phone number and a catch-all “hello@yourcompany.com” email address.
This is problematic for two reasons. First of all, in 2020 very few people enjoy talking on the phone. Secondly, email simply isn’t as popular and widely used as it was in the past. It seems, then, that a lot of companies are woefully out of touch with the way their consumers think and behave.
Luckily, there’s an antidote to the epidemic of subpar contact pages: Facebook’s customer chat plugin. In less time than it takes to iron your shirt in the morning before work, you can breathe new communicative life into your website and foster outreach from your customers in a way that is befitting of 2020.
Demonstrating that your business has its finger on the pulse of current communications trends isn’t the only reason to install a Messenger plugin on your site, though. Let’s look at a few of the tangible Facebook customer chat plugin benefits for your organization.
Messaging is a highly effective way to generate qualified marketing leads. If you manage your Facebook Inbox with Airy Messenger, you can put an automation in place to capture contacts that you can later reach out to via Messenger marketing campaigns.
This is the messaging equivalent of getting website visitors to sign up for your company’s email newsletter, but better. Some of you may remember the early days of email. You had to actively build newsletter subscriber lists, and the process was time consuming. Thanks to messaging, that hassle is a thing of the past.
Companies ditching old school contact sections in favor of more consumer-friendly communication channels isn’t a new trend. Many of you have probably already contacted a business through a live chat plugin on their site from companies like Intercom or Zendesk.
While this style of live chat plugin does resemble Facebook’s customer plugin―there are a few major differences. To begin with, the latter is inherently mobile optimized, which is a necessity in a mobile-first world. Secondly, data from McKinsey – and our very own customer cases – shows that live chat is five times as expensive as messaging in terms of the average cost of interaction.
Now that we’ve addressed some of the benefits of having a Facebook Chat Plugin on your site, we’ll show you how you can easily implement one.
FYI: If your website is hosted by WordPress, you can skip to the WordPress section below.
1) Navigate to your organization’s Facebook page and select “Settings” in the menu on the top right. Next, click on “Messenger Platform” and scroll to the bottom of the page.
2) Here you’ll find the “Customer Chat Plugin” option. Click the “Set Up” box to the right.
3) A window with the headline “Set Up Customer Chat” will pop up. Here you can choose your language settings, as well as the default greeting that’s displayed when visitors to your site message you.
4) The next step will allow you to choose custom colors for your plugin to match your site or brand’s aesthetic. This step is optional.
5) Now you’ll need to enter the complete address of your company’s website in the top left corner of the window. Finally, decide whether to send the instructions to your webmaster or do it yourself.
Feel up to the challenge yourself? Below you’ll find instructions for WordPress, Squarespace, and all other websites.
When using WordPress, simply use the official Messenger customer chat plugin. Be aware, however, that in order to install plugins, you need to have a business account.
1) Login to your WordPress dashboard, go to the “Plugins” menu and select “Add New.”
2) Search for “Messenger” and select the official Facebook Messenger Customer Chat Plugin.
3) Install the plugin.
4) Activate the plugin.
5) Next, click on “Customer Chat” in the sidebar on the left and then click on “Setup Customer Chat.”
6) Select your language settings and default greeting.
7) Choose custom colors for your Messenger plugin, if desired.
8) Click “Finish” to save your settings. The plugin should now be ready for use!
When using Squarespace, make sure that you’re using the standard website editor. Similar to WordPress, the option to add a chat plugin is only possible with a business or commerce account.
1) Click on “Settings” in your Squarespace dashboard.
2) Click on “Advanced” in the bottom righthand corner of the screen.
3) Click on “Code injection.”
4) Insert the Facebook code snippet that you obtained in the Facebook Business Manager earlier.
5) Press “Save” and refresh the browser. You should now be able to see the customer chat plugin.
For all other websites, simply look for either an add HTML option or paste it directly into the text editor for each page that you’d like the plugin to appear on.
1) Open the text editor for the page on which you’d like to install the plugin.
2) Open a <body> tag.
3) Paste the Facebook chat plugin code below the <body> tag.
4) Close the </body> tag.
Presto! The customer chat plugin should now appear on your website.
Adding a Facebook Messenger plugin to your site will be sure to help you establish more meaningful relationships with your customers through messaging. Simply adding the plugin won’t be enough, though! Be sure to spread the word and let everyone know that you can be easily reached on Messenger.
To get a customized demo of Facebook customer chat plugin benefits for your business, get in touch with us.